Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Here's another fun card using an item from my "bits and pieces" stash. This patterned oval has been in the stash for at least 2 years!! I just wasn't sure what to do with it, because the pattern was a little strong to stamp over. But then I started thinking about vellum and knew it would soften it up enough to allow the pattern to show, but not overwhelm the sentiment. Yeay! Another difficult piece used. And it is what inspired the color combo. It's a bit bright, but I think it's rather pretty.

After adhering all the layers together, I spritzed the whole card with some Glimmer Mist. It's hard to see in the photo but it really adds such a nice subtle sparkle. And see that gorgeous diecut? A very lovely woman sent a whole bunch to me after I commented on some dies she had used on her card. Thanks, Gail!!

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Time to get started on those Valentine's Day Cards. I think I made 10 cards this week (might be a new record for me!) and this is the only one that didn't use anything from my "bits and pieces" stash. But I really wanted to use this sketch and didn't have any pieces that worked. BUT I have had that bling oval FOREVER and have never really figured how to use it. I think it is a fun way to draw even more attention to this adorable cupcake cupid.

I had these three die cut circles in my "bits and pieces" stash and I had an idea floating around in my head. And it actually came out pretty close to what I was thinking of. CAS and quick and easy and kind of fun, too.

I've been on a roll lately; feeling very creative and using up lots and lots of my bits and pieces stash. The piece on this one is the white piece the bird is stamped on. And the patterned papers are scraps, too.

My super creative week is continuing; I have 4 more cards I finished yesterday. This month I actually got one finished in time to play along with the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop. This month the theme is all about love. I made this card for my husband. It's a bit smaller than a regular A2 size as I had some card blanks someone had given me a loooong time ago and they were the perfect size for that red element behind the coffee cups. That piece is from my bits and pieces stash that I am quickly using up (all though there are a lot of pieces still left to go). Anyway, here's the card.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Phew!! I am on a roll this week! This is my sixth card of the week. Of course it helps that I need to send out thank you cards for Christmas gifts. :) If you've seen any of my other cards from the week, you know I am in "Use up my bits and pieces mode". The white die cut panel was in my stash and made a cute home for this adorable snowman. All the papers were scraps and the red mat under the sentiment panel was actually a narrow strip of card stock that I cut in half and adhered to the edges of the sentiment panel. Such a great way to use up scraps; no one is going to see underneath, so it doesn't need to span the whole height. There's my tip for you today; no charge even!

I don't have a lot of good markers and don't have any to match the vintage reds in the papers, so I decided to paper piece the snowman's hat and scarf. LOVE It!!! I think this snowman is super cute anyway, but now, he's just plain adorable! Here's a close up:

You can also see the sparkle on the snowflakes and the hat and scarf trim a little better, too. The next picture shows a close up of the faux stitching detail on the patterned squares.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Another card made this week on my quest to use up a BIG stash of bits and pieces I have laying around. I had a piece I was trying to use on this card and it just wasn't working, so I got side-tracked and had it almost finished before I realized I hadn't used anything from the stash. Ribbons to the rescue!! I had four pieces of 2-3 inch long ribbon that I just couldn't throw away. So I cut them in half, folded them in half and attached them to the back of the horizontal panel. It really makes a fun border.

This is another one of the 5 cards I've made so far this week try to use up some of my bits and pieces. You can read more about it here. This card wasn't much of a stash buster, but the white circle was in the the stash, so I did reduce it by one item at least. These papers I've had for several years and the ribbon has also been around for a while. The only thing new are the pearls which I just received from someone and I really wasn't sure how I would ever use them as they are kind of peachy colored. But they really were perfect for all the orange on this card.

Here is another card I made this week in my quest to use up my "bits and pieces" stash. You can read more about it here and here. The leftovers I used on this card are the white circle and the flower. The striped paper was already cut to height, I just had to trim the width. And the scalloped border was cut from a narrow strip of cardstock.

I share in my previous post that I'm on a mission to use up all my bits and pieces of "stuff". I made five cards this week using pieces from that stash and bits and pieces of patterned papers that are starting to take over the world, or at least my craft area. The bits and pieces used on this card are the gray circle, one of the light pink flowers and that gorgeous silver filigree piece. It looks just like a piece of jewelry to me; I love it! The pink flower paper was from a whole sheet, but the striped paper was a leftover piece. And I had to piece together the mat under the striped panel as it wasn't quite big enough, but you'll never know as I covered the join up with a flower. : )

I'm on a mission this month (year, lifetime . . .) to use up the little bits and pieces left over from previous cards. You know, those pieces that you just can't throw away, but didn't work on your card before. It was my goal last year, and I did pretty well for about half the year and then I just kept adding to the pile instead of taking away. So I have a lot of great (and to be honest not so great) pieces to try to use. This card is a combination of old and new, but mostly old. The pattern papers I've had for several years and the pink paper, I've had for probably 12 years or so; time to use it up! The flourish die cuts are brand new and I LOVE them. The bits and pieces from my stash are the white oval and that beautiful flower. My 8-year-old daughter actually made it for me. She has a book of punch out flowers that you mix and match and layer together. If you look carefully, you can just see the glitter on the different layers.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Hello, everyone! I hope it's warmer where you are than it is here! Brrr . . . it's definitely winter! Today, I'm bringing you the mid-month reminder to come and join us at the Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra blog. We're a month long, anything goes Christmas challenge. I know we just finished up with the Christmas season, but there's no better time to get started on your cards for this year. Here's my card:

I did a little something that I haven't done in a while: masking. I started by stamping the monster on the card stock and then stamping him again on a post-it note, cut that out and used it to cover the monster on the card. Then I stamped the hat and viola! You have a Santa Monster. : ) I also did some selective inking on the sentiment. It actually reads "RAWR! {hello in monster}" but obviously that didn't really work for this card. So I stamped "Merry Christmas" (from a different set) then inked only the "in monster}" part and stamped that. Then I inked only the "RAWR" and centered it over the rest of the sentiment, then went back in and added the other bracket before "Merry". It took a bit of time, but I think it's really cute! Here's the inside of my card (my New Years' Resolution this year is to finish the inside of each card as I make it; so far so good!):

I stamped the cute little monster again, but this time I added a different hat. He's cute both ways. So, now it's your turn to get working on those Christmas cards. We'd love to have you play along.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Today, I've got a super cute little box for you. I made it from a template I got from My Time Made Easy several years ago. It is designed to hold an 8 oz canning jar (I'll show you that in a bit), specifically for jelly, but really you can use it for anything.

As it is a box to hold a Christmas gift, I decorated the top with my favorite snowflakes. Here's a look at the lid:

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Happy New Year!! Can you believe it is 2015? Not only is it the start of a new year, it is the start of a new month and that means it is time for another challenge from Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra. As always, it is a month-long Anything Goes challenge. Our sponsor is the fabulous Bugaboo Stamps. I used the super cute "Christmas Words--Jesus" image to create this card quartet:

The challenge from Viva La Verve this month is to use one sheet of 6x6 double-sided to create 4 cards with the sketches and cutting layouts provided in the challenge post. I had so much fun creating cards for this post that I decided to use the challenge again to create my cards for today. Since I don't have any double-sided Christmas paper, I actually used 2 sheets of paper and cut both of them into the given measurements. Then I created EIGHT cards!! Yep, eight, all in one day!! That might be a new record for me. The other four are "thank you" cards and I will be posting them soon. But enough talking, here are close up pictures of the four different cards:

I used the same embossing folder, patterned papers, and sentiment (and obviously the image) for all of them, but the different layouts really make them each unique.

I got a new little kitten a couple months ago, and every time I try to take a photo of my cards, she tries to get in on it. It makes the photo sessions a bit difficult. : )